PHOTOS Perez Hilton with son Mario Armando Lavandeira III (aka Perez Jr.)
Perez Hilton shocked the blogosphere last month when he posted a photo of himself and his newborn son along with a statement that included “I am so humbled to welcome this little man into my life.” Since then we haven’t seen or heard much about lil Perez, until earlier today when proud poppa Perez posted a ton of photos of himself and little Mario Armando Lavandeira III (whom dad has nicknamed Perez Hilton Jr.) on his website and gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times talking about the surrogacy process and becoming a dad.
“We are thrilled to formally introduce you all to the angel we are blessed to have as a son, Mario Armando Lavandeira, III Perez Hilton, Jr.,” Perez wrote. “For the first time, we are showing pictures of our little man,” he adds, “and Perez is speaking out about why he chose to be a single father.” (With a link to his interview.)
Perez tells the L.A. Times that he always knew he would become a father by his 35th birthday, which is coming up on March 23, and he always assumed he would go it alone. “I knew it was going to happen this way because boyfriends and husbands may come and go, but kids are forever. I didn’t want to keep waiting.” he says. (Perez has been in only one serious relationship in the past five years.)
In the interview it’s revealed that the only people who knew Perez was expecting a son were his mother, his sister, his lawyer, and his business manager. Perez found an egg donor and surrogate to carry his son last year, although he doesn’t know the name or identity of the egg donor. The pregnancy went smoothly for eight months, but on February 16 Perez received a call that the surrogate’s water had broken and she was about to go into labor, a month before the due date.
Perez flew out to an undisclosed location to meet the surrogate at the hospital, and discovered that he was at the wrong hospital altogether (the town had two hospitals with similar names). Three hours after arriving at the correct hospital, his healthy son was born, weighing in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces. Perez announced the news of the birth of his son a week later and became the number one trending topic on Twitter.
This huge new change in Perez’s life marks a capstone on a series of changes that Perez has made in both his personal and professional life, which began in 2010 after he was strongly affected by the suicides of teenagers who were either bullied because they were gay or bullied because their peers suspected they were gay. Perez, like many celebrities at the time, participated in the 2010 “It Gets Better” project to prevent gay suicide, and discovered that he was considered one of the biggest bullies on the Internet.
On his blog, Perez outed gay celebrities, mocked celebrities’ looks, and famously referred to the Miss California USA pageant contestant Carrie Prejean as a “dumb bitch” after she stated that she was against gay marriage at the Miss USA 2009 pageant. He has since expressed his desire to “aspire higher” and has made efforts to stop online bullying and decrease the negativity of PerezHilton.com.
And it seems that being a father is softening Perez even more! “The other day I locked myself in the bathroom and started crying because in addition to my brain feeling loopy, I really have felt super hormonal and emotional,” Perez says. “Wow, I really am a dad now and it’s awesome.”
Congratulations to Perez! We hope to hear more about the adorable Perez Hilton Jr. (and see more pics!) in the future 🙂
(Photos via PerezHilton.com)
